


Scott's Right Hand Men

by KnightOfEaldor



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Enemies to Friends, Friendship, Gen, Pack Bonding, Protective Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 08:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7427740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KnightOfEaldor/pseuds/KnightOfEaldor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles didn't exactly hide his distaste in Scott's choice of beta, and Liam tried not to take that too personally. He figured Stiles wouldn't like anyone with such a close bond to the kid who'd been his best friend since preschool.</p><p>Liam had resigned himself to a lifetime of sarcasm and biting comments just when that started to change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Scott's Right Hand Men

"Why are you here?"

"Hey, Stiles, nice to see you. Really great of you to give up a Saturday afternoon to play chauffeur. What a good guy you are."

Liam rolled his eyes, but he climbed into the passenger side of Stiles's jeep. "I thought Scott was going to drive me."

"Scott got held up at the clinic. Normal emergency, not a supernatural emergency. Or depends on your definition of normal, I guess. This dog somehow ate an entire laptop, charger and all. So I got put on beta duty," Stiles explained. While he chattered, he put his car in gear and drove out of the parking lot and onto the road. 

"You could have stopped at 'Scott got held up at the clinic,'" Liam groaned, sliding down in the seat. 

"You know, you of all people should be more considerate of other people's symptoms, specifically the ones that need medicated," Stiles said.

Liam glanced at the side mirror where his therapist's office grew smaller and smaller as they drove away. He tried to keep his normal glower, but a small smile teased his lips anyway. Well, even if he did smile a little, it was between him and the side mirror. 

"Hey, who is this person in my jeep? I can't recognize him when he's not glaring at me like he wants to kill me."

And Stiles apparently. 

Liam crossed his arms and pointedly kept staring out the window. 

"Come on, man, it's a long trip back to your house, and considering the path our lives usually take, I wouldn't mind some good news," Stiles urged.

"Fine," Liam huffed, but he still couldn't quite hide his smile. "My doctor reviewed my case. She looked at how I haven't gotten into any fights or caused any damage since switching schools, and she's decided to lower my medication dosage. It's almost nothing now."

"Hey, dude, that's awesome." And weirdly, Stiles sounded like he meant it. He gave a light punch to the younger kid's arm, and Liam knew he was genuinely happy for him. 

Stiles understood the best out of anyone, he supposed. The psychiatrist visits, the medication just to function normally, the stigma against an affliction that couldn't be seen. He knew better that anyone what a big deal this was, and Liam finally let himself grin fully, warmth and pride glowing inside him.

"I mean, you probably won't take this dosage any better than the last one, but hey, progress," Stiles added. 

Liam kind of wanted to punch him, but mostly, he didn't. He was getting better now. 

"Maybe all you needed was an outlet. One of the supernatural variety. Getting hairy once a month, roughing it up with assassins and berserkers. Lycanthropy, the new alternative medication," Stiles continued, hands dancing on his steering wheel. 

A sigh escaped Liam's lips, and he sank deeper into the seat. He prepared for a long ride home of endless babble. 

*******

"The sun, the moon, the truth. The sun, the moon, the truth."

Liam took a deep breath, and he felt his claws retract and his muscles release their tension. He needed to repeat the mantra less and less as each full moon grew easier, and he couldn't help but smile proudly at Scott now. 

They spent full moons at the alpha's house these days partly because he and Malia possessed better control but also because memories of the lake house now consisted of death and despair. Melissa made a point to work nights on full moons, so they could all use the space to rein in wild betas or, as they did now, order pizza and watch movies. Malia piled her plate in the kitchen without any snarling and shifting, and Liam sat beside Scott on the couch, both beaming. 

"That's awesome, Liam," he congratulated. "Did Brett teach you that?"

"Uh, no, actually, Stiles did. On the way to Mexico," he admitted. 

"Stiles?" Scott didn't hide his surprise exactly how Stiles didn't hide his distaste for his best friend's choice in beta. Liam tried not to take that too personally because he figured Stiles wouldn't like anyone with such a close connection to the kid he'd known since preschool. Then again, Stiles had taught him the mantra and picked him up from his psychiatrist and accepted him as part of the pack at least. 

Before Liam could follow that train of thought much further, the teenager himself walked through the front door with a stack of DVDs. 

"Okay," he greeted. "Three of the people in this house have not seen Star Wars, and that's enough to give me hives. We're solving this problem once and for all since Kira failed me last time."

"We were kidnapped," Kira defended herself. She squeezed between Scott and the end of the couch with two plates of pizza, handing one to her boyfriend. 

"So not an excuse," Stiles dismissed. "Last year? Maybe. These days, I don't think so." 

"Wait, so Lydia hasn't seen them either?" Scott asked. 

"The third person is Malia, the one who spent most of her life as a coyote," Lydia huffed, crossing her legs primly beneath her skirt. She claimed Melissa's recliner as her throne, complete with plate, napkins, and iced tea on the end table. “Of course I’ve seen them.”

"I still can't believe you managed to bite probably the only other kid who just somehow missed the Star Wars phenomenon," Stiles grumbles, moving to the floor to set up the TV. He knew the McCall household as well as his own at this point. "Also, Lydia, didn't you invite Parrish? I like him, and I bet he's seen Star Wars."

"Patrol. He doesn't want to leave your dad as the only officer in the know on full moons," she reported. 

"Geez, I like him even more now."

Stiles had the movie playing a moment later, and since Malia preferred laying on the floor with a pillow, he took the last spot on the couch beside Liam. They pressed together, and the beta tried to ignore that he was squished between two older kids. Scott was his alpha after all, and Stiles... tolerated him at least.

Still, Liam felt tense, and not the full moon kind. 

When Stiles nudged him with his elbow, Liam nearly popped claws, but he controlled himself. He worried needlessly anyway because Stiles only confided in his ear, “You’ll want to pay attention to this. I’m not saying there’s a forty question quiz after the original three, but I’m also not saying there’s not.”

Liam nodded, more than little annoyed, and much to his further irritation, he found he really liked Star Wars.

*******

After a while, Liam thought he would grow used to the life-or-death situations. Scott and Kira seemed to take even the craziest revelations in stride, and Stiles approached everything in his life with the same mix of sarcasm and anxiety — whether a test in school or a terrifying creature with claws and fangs. Lydia had her moments when she still detested her own gifts, but then again, she knew how to use them, too. As for Malia, she lived in the forest for so many years that nothing posed a threat to her anymore.

Liam though, he still trembled. He shifted and lunged moments behind his alpha, but his heart still beat fast, and he never lost the terror that thrummed just beneath his present thoughts.

A couple of betas fleeing from a pack in Oregon had passed through Beacon Hills and asked Scott for a place to stay while they rested. Even though Stiles had warned him to be wary and pointed out that the betas-turned-omegas were running for a reason, Scott’s heart ruled his nature, and he invited the two wolves to make themselves at home in the woods until they felt strong enough to move along.

They attacked a group of campers in the first night, and when Scott and the whole pack confronted them, they answered with glowing eyes and claws.

Malia, Scott, and Liam shifted while Stiles and Lydia moved away from the fighting range. Stiles gripped his bat, prepared to strike anything that came close to Lydia, and Kira drew her sword to both join the offensive and remain a boundary between the wolves and the ones without the ability to heal.

Four experienced fighters against two omegas hardly made a fair fight, but they aimed to kill, and Scott trained them to maim. Plus, if Liam was honest with himself, he was hardly experienced compared to the other three. Even compared to Stiles and Lydia really. He was the youngest in years among them, but he was also the newest to this whole other world, and he felt that difference in times like this especially.

The extra senses and the faster reflexes meant nothing if he didn’t know how to use them, and Liam swiped his claws and dodged enemy strikes the best he could, but a moment of distraction, and he found himself stumbling backward, the rogue wolf shoving Kira to the side and stalking toward him.

Liam shuffled backward, but the wolf came faster, a flash of gold eyes, a blur of claws, and—

A cry of pain. Someone gripped his arms and pulled him, and he watched as someone fell in the spot where he had been.

“Stiles?”

“Come on, get to your feet,” Lydia ordered. She kept her hold on his arms, and Liam borrowed her strength to find his own legs, but he could not pull his eyes away from the scene unfolding.

Stiles cradled his stomach, blood streaming between his fingers. Kira and Malia jumped on the wolf that had wounded him, and almost immediately, they had him handcuffed with a special pair Stiles had stolen from his father and treated with mountain ash. Scott had the second wolf in the same position within half a minute.

Still, even as the fighting took place around him, Liam watched Stiles slowly sit up, check his stomach, and then quickly replace his hands to stem the flow of blood.

Stiles had been with Lydia. Stiles somehow appeared in just the moment to save Liam from that blow. Stiles had thrown himself in the firing line _for_ Liam.

He didn’t even know how to react to that.

He had thought Stiles tolerated him at best and actively hated him at worst. Even if he treated Liam well enough most of the time, he assumed that had more to do with Scott than Stiles himself. Yet despite all that, Stiles — breakable human Stiles — had thrown himself in the line of fire for him.

Kira kept watch on their two captives, and Scott and Malia raced to Stiles’s side to inspect his wounds. Scott drained some of the pain, and once the relief cleared his head, Stiles managed to speak.

“Not deep,” he gasped. “Just need some bandages. Don’t tell my dad.”

“Dude, those don’t look so good,” Scott said. The alpha had seen plenty of injuries since his introduction to the supernatural world, but he sounded wrecked at the sight of them on his best friend.

“It’s cool,” Stiles assured him, still breathing heavily. “Just take me home.”

Scott and Malia moved Stiles to the back of his jeep, something he complained about but could not really protest, and Lydia drove him home. Kira and Liam stayed to help Scott and Malia take the captured werewolves to Deaton’s where they would stay until they contacted their pack to retrieve them.

Liam followed orders as they transferred the omegas and secured them in the clinic, but his mind wandered miles away the entire time. He hoped Stiles was right about the cuts not being deep.

*******

According to Scott, Stiles was fine, but since he had told his father about the wounds — hard to hide thick bandages wrapped around his torso when he moved so often that they often reopened — he had been ordered to take a day from school to recover. Liam figured that was obvious, but Stiles apparently had protested until his father had eventually guilted him into staying in bed for the next 24 hours.

“Hey, Liam,” Scott continued after giving him the update on Stiles. Liam hadn’t asked, so he was grateful their alpha felt the need to make sure everyone knew about everyone else. “Kira, Malia, and I are meeting the Oregon pack to give them the omegas after school today. I don’t know how late we’ll be, so I want you to stay here this time. If you need anything, Lydia and Stiles will also be in Beacon Hills.”

Liam nodded his understanding, and Scott smiled. They tended to meet like this before school, but now completely updated with each other, they separated to go to their respective lockers.

Liam grabbed his books and went to his classes mindlessly that day. He talked with Mason and took notes, but his mind wandered to Stiles.

He knew his dad worked a lot, and Lydia had been spending more time with Parrish to help him further understand his own supernatural gifts. That left Stiles more than likely alone as he recovered from his injuries. Injuries he received for Liam.

He sighed. Maybe being beta to someone like Scott was affecting him because Liam knew what he was doing after school.

*******

As Scott had said, he and Kira and Malia left right after their last class to take the omegas north to a spot where the other pack had agreed to meet them. Liam told them goodbye before meeting Lydia at her car.

She didn’t seem surprised to see him though he had never sought her out like this before. “Um,” he stumbled, unsure how to address her without Scott or another member of the pack nearby. While he knew Lydia as a member of the pack who liked chocolate on her popcorn and chick flicks, he still found her intimidating because he also knew her as a strong warrior with skills of all kinds.

Finally, she took pity on him. “I guess you need a ride?” she asked.

Liam nodded.

She gestured to the passenger side. “Get in,” she ordered.

Liam did just that, and he tried not to feel awkward as he adjusted his school bag down at his feet, careful not to touch more of her car than necessary. Lydia put the car in gear and drove away from the parking lot.

“Can you—?” he started.

“I know where you want to go,” she said. “We need to pick something up first though.”

He wisely decided not to argue with her. They arrived at a diner Liam normally avoided because no athlete should fill his body with that amount of grease in one sitting. That said, he’s not surprised to find Stiles’s favorite curly fries came from here, and Lydia had already ordered a large to go. She picked up the bag, heavy more with the mentioned grease than the fries themselves, and gave it to Liam.

Then they stopped at a Red Box where Lydia left Liam in the car once again to retrieve a movie. She shoved this, too, in his hands, and Liam recognized the DVD as one of the new Marvel films.

“He’s been waiting for this one for a while,” Lydia explained. “He planned for us all to see it in theaters, but then the assassins, dead pool, etcetera.”

Finally, they arrived at Stiles’s house, and Liam exited the car with his backpack, to-go bag, and DVD. “Thanks for the ride and… everything else,” he said.

Lydia nodded, and she seemed like she might something more before she only gave him a wave. She pulled out of the driveway and disappeared down the road.

Which left Liam alone in front of Stiles’s house. The steamy smell of grease from the fries started to make him sick as he made his way to the door and knocked. Twice. Three times. Finally, he heard some shuffling and grumbling, and the door opened to reveal a very perturbed Stiles.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

His hair stuck up more than normal, and he wore pajamas rumpled enough to hint that he had not changed since he first showered after the whole ordeal with the omegas. When he realized Liam stood at his doorstep, he looked angry. Which was just unfair really.

“Please, no,” he groaned. “There should be a rule that supernatural disasters cannot happen this close together. What’s happened? And why didn’t Scott text me?”

Oh, okay, that made slightly more sense. Liam could give Stiles that though he still felt the simmering anger that his gesture of goodwill was first received with groaning.

“Nothing’s happened,” he muttered, wishing he was anywhere else. Or that Lydia had at least stayed to buffer some of the awkwardness. “Everyone’s gone to meet the pack to give them the omegas back, but Scott thinks it will go fine.”

“Then why are you here?” Stiles said.

Liam held up the to-go bag and the DVD, and the older boy’s eyes widened as he apparently noticed Liam’s offerings for the first time.

“Look, I just came her to say” — Liam sighed, averted his eyes, sighed again — “thanks. For the other day. You got hurt… for me. So yeah, thanks.”

Liam felt almost insulted by how shocked Stiles looked at his gratitude. His expression froze doing something ridiculous, and his eyes widened. The whole situation irritated Liam until he shoved the bag of curly fries and the DVD into Stiles’s arms, belatedly realizing that he probably irritated his wounds, but Stiles looked too surprised to notice.

“Okay, I guess I’ll just go then,” he grumbled, and though he would have to walk home, he started to turn and leave.

“Wait.”

Liam almost kept walking, but Stiles sounded oddly genuine behind him, so he turned to meet the older kid’s eyes again.

“Thanks,” Stiles said. He hesitated, an expression oddly similar to the one Lydia wore when deciding whether to tell Liam anything else before leaving him here, but Stiles apparently decided to go with whatever ran through his mind. “There’s a lot of fries here. Want to watch the movie?”

Now Liam hovered, unsure what to do because he and Stiles were not these kinds of friends. They tolerated each other for Scott’s sake and nothing more.

At least that was how they used to operate, but now apparently Stiles took claws for him, and Liam brought him fries and movies.

“Okay,” he said.

Stiles set up the TV, and Liam noticed how he moved a little stiffer, sometimes wincing in pain when he leaned the wrong way and strained his torso. He also put the fries on a plate that they share between them as they sit on the couch.

Liam held himself erect, and he felt uncomfortable, but then Stiles made a comment about Kira using a sword better than someone onscreen.

Liam snorted and added that Scott totally fought better than these supposed superheroes.

They spent the rest of the movie comparing their friends and their lives to whatever happened onscreen, and Liam found himself relaxing into the couch bit by bit. When they finished eating through the fries, Stiles made microwave popcorn and brought back sodas as well.

They both get texts from Scott at some point saying that the transfer of the omegas went smoothly, and they now had allies in Oregon. Liam didn’t see how valuable that would be, but Stiles seemed excited.

After the movie, Stiles offered to drive him home.

“Are you sure you should be doing anything with you—?” Liam gestured to his stomach where he knew bandages wrapped around claw marks.

Stiles shrugged, already swinging keys around his fingers. “I’ve been in this house all day. I need to make sure the rest of the world still exists outside my front door.”

They spend the ride to his house chatting over the movie, and when Stiles pulled into his driveway, he waved. “See you tomorrow, Liam.”

“Sure you’ll be in school tomorrow?”

“I’ll talk Dad around,” Stiles dismissed.

Stiles waited in his jeep until Liam safely walked inside his house, and as he watched the familiar vehicle drive away, he wondered if this was the start of friendship. Not obligatory pack relations under Scott, but actual friendship.

Liam decided he wouldn’t mind that.

**Author's Note:**

> Because Stiles deserves all the love and attention, and Lydia is perfect in all ways. And Liam's the cute pack baby.


End file.
